2. Texas

Texas has its own energy boom going on in the Eagle Ford shale and other areas in the Southwestern part of the state.

Manufacturing also had a solid year in Texas, including at refineries along the Gulf Coast, auto and aircraft factories near Dallas, and electronics firms in the Austin area, said Daniel Hamermesh, an economics professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Hamermesh also noted that among the top five best-performing states, two are so-called red states and three are blue.

"This has very little to do with politics," he said, "despite what the governors like to say."